Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

THE BIG BLUFF

John Bromfield

THE BIG BLUFF (1955). Director: W. Lee Wilder.

Valerie Bancroft (Martha Vickers) doesn't know that her doctor [whom I wouldn't trust to diagnose a dog!] has told her secretary-companion, Marsha (Eve Miller), that she has a weak heart and only a few months to live. While Marsha bonds with Valerie's new doctor, Peter Kirk (Robert Hutton), Valerie is quite taken with a sexy dark-haired fellow named Ricardo De Villa (John Bromfield), who is already involved with an attractive dancer named Fritzie (Rosemarie Stack). Ric romances the very wealthy widow Valerie even as he keeps time with Fritzie and tries to avoid the latter's jealous husband, Don (Eddie Bee). Then he cooks up a scheme to get his hands on all that loot with a smitten Fritzie's help ... The Big Bluff is not a world-beater but it holds the attention and Bromfield and Stack give flavorful performances. Vickers' performance is mediocre, but Miller and Hutton are better. The ending is ironic if unconvincing. Robert Bice is the original doctor who makes the fatal diagnosis. Handsome Bromfield usually starred in movies like this and Curucu, Beast of the Amazon, but he also appeared in The Furies with Barbara Stanwyck and other better-known films in smaller roles. Stack, originally known as Rosemarie Bowe [as she's billed in this picture], married Robert Stack the following year, but she didn't use his last name professionally until the 70's. Vickers was better in Alimony.

No comments:

Film-Related and Other Books by WILLIAM SCHOELL

WELCOME!

Welcome to William Schoell's GREAT OLD MOVIES blog. Feel free to leave a comment regardless of the date the review was posted -- I read 'em all. Or if you prefer -- and especially if you have any questions directly for me -- email me at tawses67424@mypacks.net and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Click on a label link (labels can be found at the bottom of each post) to find other movies from that year, the star, that director or genre and so on. Or enter a title, director, genre, star or supporting player in the small Blogger "search blog" box at the far left up above and click search blog. [NOTE: While this blog mostly reviews films -- and TV shows -- that are at least twenty-five years old, we do cover films up until the present day.] HAVE FUN AND THANKS FOR DROPPING BY. William.

Copyright

Everything on this blog is copyrighted 2008 - 2017 by William Schoell and cannot be used without permission. However, you can email posts on this blog to others, link to blog entries, and the like. It is permissible to quote from a post/review but please credit the author and mention this blog with a link back to here. Thanks.